'From' Season 4 Ending Explained: Has Fatima Turned Into A Monster?

[Spoiler Alert] From season 4 ended with the Boy in White and the Man in Yellow (in Sophia’s form) coming face-to-face for the first time (on screen), where BIW told MIY that he was going to lose this time. The reason BIW believed so was because the residents had gathered the bones of the Anghkooey children, something that they hadn’t been able to do in the previous cycles of the township. This was even pointed out by MIY, who told Tabitha in season 4, episode 8, that she was going to do something (digging up the bones) she’d never done before. However, this victory came at a huge cost, as the residents pulled out the Bottle Tree from its roots to extract Jade and Tabitha from the tunnels. But as you can see, that plan didn’t work out in their favor, meaning they destroyed one of the magical trees for no reason, and its destruction broke something in the structure of the town, the aftermath of which the residents are going to face in the next season. So without any further ado, allow me to take a deeper dive into everything that went down in the From season 4 finale.

The Boy in White and the Man in Yellow Are Playing A Game

The brief interaction between BIW and MIY suggested that it was a game for them, and so BIW’s dialogue, “you’re gonna lose this time,” implied that BIW hadn’t been winning the game so far, though this time, he was feeling optimistic. Speaking of games, MIY used the same phrasing when he told Tabitha that they had played this game so many times, likely referring to Jade and Tabitha’s incarnation in every cycle of the township, where the duo tries to free the Anghkooey children, so that the residents can go back home. But even after numerous incarnations, Jade and Tabitha haven’t been able to defeat MIY. We don’t know how long they have been playing this game, but the numbers that we saw inside the lighthouse in season 1 date back to 1506, and so far, each of these cycles has ended in a massacre, with either town’s monsters or MIY himself killing the residents to win the game and start a new cycle. Also, the dates carved inside the lighthouse don’t follow a definite pattern, which means a cycle ends when all the residents in the cycle are dead. Though Victor has been an exception, since he survived the aftermath of the previous cycle, and has been helping the residents of the current cycle to free the Anghkooey children so that they can finally break the loop. The question here: did Victor do it by accident or by design? And if MIY intended to leave Victor alive, then does it mean that he would have spared one life in each cycle, who would later help the new batch of residents to settle in and understand the town so that they stand a chance of “winning the game” and return home? So Victor (or the survivor of each cycle) can be seen as a guide for the new residents, and if the current cycle is going to suffer the same fate as the previous ones, then one can speculate that Ethan is going to be the guide for the next cycle.

BIW’s closing dialogues further suggest that Fromville is like an adventure board game (or a card game), being played between BIW and MIY, acting as two opposing forces, likely good and evil, respectively. BIW is on the residents’ side, trying to help them reach the finish line alive, while MIY is leading the monsters and making sure that these creatures kill the residents before they find a way out. So I guess, every time BIW loses, the board resets, bringing in new residents to the town, while the monsters remain the same. Also, we don’t know if Fromville will be completely destroyed after BIW has won the game, or if it will start another cycle, with a new set of characters (and likely new monsters) flooding the town. And I know this story arc centered around “two people with special powers playing a game with the characters” is a bit similar to LOST, but sadly, I haven’t seen that show, so I won’t be able to draw out the parallels. But do let me know in the comments below.

Just a random thing I noticed, back in season 3, when Tabitha ended up in the real world (or what she believed to be the real world), she spotted BIW waving at her, which suggested BIW sent Tabitha to Maine, the place where Victor’s family lived, as he wanted Tabitha to bring Henry to Fromville, as he might play an important role in cracking the mystery. The show so far has established that whatever BIW’s doing, he’s doing to help the residents get back home, so saving Victor and showing them the right path has been his design.

It’s a Loop

So far, the show has dropped numerous clues suggesting that Fromville runs like a loop, where each cycle has the same beginning and the same end (so far). This is represented by an infinity symbol, which made its first appearance in season 1, when Victor and Tabitha visited the tunnels where the creatures hide during the daytime. Season 4, episode 10, pointed out that the monsters couldn’t come out in the light, which probably has something to do with the ritual on which the town is built, but we’ll find out more about it in the next season. Speaking of the infinity symbol, we saw the sign again on a ring Boyd spotted in the Colony House, though it quickly disappeared the moment he brought it to his station. It’s possible he was dreaming about the ring and the symbol, or maybe a hidden force has been trying to tell him something important. The symbol can also represent the numerous reincarnations of Jade and Tabitha, the resetting of the cycles, and the immortality of the monsters, who have remained the same, even though the residents change with every cycle. 

The Lake of Tears

I guess the only way to break this loop is to free the Anghkooey children, but the show hasn’t yet answered how Jade and Tabitha are going to do that. By the end of episode 10, they have collected the bones and escaped the tunnels alive, but what’s next? In MIY’s words, they may have found the key, but where’s the lock? Where are they going to put those bones? Do Jade and Tabitha know what’s needed of them to break the ritual? I think they might know (or their previous reincarnations knew), but they haven’t remembered that part yet, so in the next season, Jade and Tabitha will likely find out (the way Jade found out about the bones through a mushroom trip) what they need to do with the bones. Do they need to cremate them, or immerse those bones in the “Lake of Tears”? At the beginning of season 4, Jim, Ethan’s father, came back from the dead, only to ask his son to locate the Lake of Tears, a place Ethan has been talking about since the day the Matthews arrived in town. This suggests that the Lake of Tears can be an important location and maybe the “key” to freeing the Anghkooey children. In Hinduism, after a person dies, the body is cremated, and the ashes are immersed in the holy river. The ritual is called “Asthi Visarjan,” whose sole purpose is to liberate the soul so the deceased can finally achieve “moksha.” In From, Jade and Tabitha keep having the visions of the sacrificed children, and I am quite certain that they are not merely hallucinating, but it’s the souls of these children that’s been trying to connect with them, to show them the right path, and these children will only be liberated once Jade and Tabitha perform the last funeral rites for them, in the right way.

Jim’s Likely the Invisible Man

My theory is that once a person dies in Fromville, their soul gets trapped in the town (except for Jade and Tabitha, though their souls are still connected to the town, which brings them back the memories of their previous reincarnations). And this can explain how Jim Matthews, even after being killed by MIY, came back to life and contacted Ethan. I think it was Jim’s soul wandering in the woods that wanted Ethan to find the Lake of Tears so he could save the rest of the family. Furthermore, in the first episode of season 4, shortly after Jim’s death, an invisible ghost-like entity entered the Matthews’ house and slammed the kitchen cabinets, likely to make its presence felt. And this took place when the family was trying to figure out where Jim went. So it’s possible that the spirit that entered the house was none other than Jim, trying to tell his family that he was looking over them. A similar thing happened in the season 4 finale, when an invisible entity made noise while Ethan and Julie were in the Colony House, with Ethan convinced that his mum wasn’t coming back. So maybe this entity was once again trying to tell Ethan and Julie that their mother was alive and would definitely return from the tunnels. The only question is: once the residents have broken the cycle, will everyone who has died in town return home as well? Or will they remain dead forever? Well, none of the residents has yet won the game, so I guess we have to wait to find out what really happens once they set the children free.

Fatima Turns Into A Monster

The second part of From season 4 has been building up to this moment, dropping hints that Fatima was slowly turning into one of the creatures that came out in the night. Her heart beat had dropped down to 19 beats per minute, and then there were veins on his stomach that instantly reminded you of the monsters and all the undead people roaming in the town. And I think MIY accelerated this process by making Fatima drink her blood, which was why in the season 4 finale, Fatima finally turned into a monster. However, we don’t know if Fatima will have any control over her body, especially when she’s in her monstrous form. The thing is, MIY had made Fatima drink his blood, which suggests he might have control over Fatima’s body, the same way he (in Sophia’s form) had been controlling Clara. In the final scene of the episode, Fatima helped Boyd, Jade, Tabitha, and Ellis by stopping the monsters and buying them some time to escape the tunnels. But as mentioned earlier, we don’t know how long she would be able to stop the monsters, and if one monster could actually harm the other one. Furthermore, Fatima’s transformation had made her a part of MIY’s team, which could mean that if the residents break the cycle, then in the end, the monsters (including Fatima) would die the same way the residents lost their lives. Is this the reason why Fatima told Ellis to remember who she was, because no matter who wins the game, Fatima would never be able to reunite with Ellis again?

Sophia Throws Away The Talismans

At first, I assumed that the talismans had stopped working because Boyd and the party had brought down the Bottle Tree, but the way Sophia and Clara went on removing the talismans from every single house in town suggested that the talismans were still working (or might work), and Sophia removed them because she didn’t want to give the residents the chance to survive another night. This is what MIY called “the beginning of the end.” In the end, Sophia threw all the talismans into the Faraway Tree, so we don’t know where these totems are going to end up, but the residents may never find them again, so they have to figure out another way to save themselves from the monsters’ wrath. Secondly, we are not sure if Sophia would be returning to town after stealing their talismans and killing Elgin. I think she will come back to the town, because if you remember, in Victor’s cycle, MIY stayed till the very end of the massacre, so I think he’s gonna follow the same pattern in this cycle as well, and someone will finally expose her real identity in the next season. There’s a possibility that the residents will somehow find the talismans again (or may have a few left in store), but I think that will only repeat the same beats. Also, it will cancel out everything Sophia did to push the residents towards their deaths. Funny thing is, the residents don’t yet know that someone has removed the talismans from the buildings, and I think they will figure this out during Mari’s funeral, with monsters closing in towards the church to hunt the residents down. It’s gonna be a bloodbath.

Elgin Is Dead

In the previous episode, Elgin had come close to finding out Sophia’s real identity, but before he could inform anyone else, Sophia made him sit across the table and offered him the same deal she’d offered to Clara, before the Matthews arrived in the town (that is, before the events of season 1). But Elgin refused to submit to Sophia or accept evil (MIY) as his savior to save his life, which was why Sophia killed him in the diner, and I don’t think Elgin will be coming back in the next season. I am quite sure that in the next season, the residents will find the photograph that Elgin had of Sophia, helping them to connect the dots. However, if you noticed that the episode didn’t reveal whether Sophia removed Elgin’s tooth or not (as MIY had a habit of collecting them as tokens), instead, she just asked Clara to get rid of Elgin’s body, but I am quite certain that someone will come across Elgin’s corpse in the next season and figure out why he went missing. This also brings me to a question whether MIY (Sophia) is gonna fulfil his promise to Clara, by sending her home, after he has won the game, or he’s just using her to achieve his goals. Because if Clara gets convinced that MIY lied to her, then she may expose Sophia’s real identity to the residents and also tell them about every trick she pulled, including Elgin’s murder. And what about the rest of Sophia’s minions, that is, Sara and Henry? Will Sophia keep controlling them and pulling their strings until everyone in town has either killed each other or has been hunted down by the monsters? I think that it remains to be seen how much Sophia (aka MIY) will keep on interfering in the events of the town to finally win the board.

The Bones Are Going To Protect The Residents

With the talismans gone, the only object the residents have left with the children’s bones, which I think is going to play a huge role in protecting the residents against the monsters. In episode 10, after Boyd failed to bring Jade and Tabitha out of the cavern, the whole sky turned dark, giving the monsters the chance to attack Jade and Tabitha. However, before the creatures could harm them, a violent earthquake shook the entire town, including the tunnels, creating a new escape point for Jade and Tabitha. Here, I think the sky went dark because the residents knocked down the Bottle Tree; however, the children (or their souls) had been closely monitoring Jade and Tabitha’s movements, and they found them in danger, so they likely triggered an earthquake to bring Jade and Tabitha to safety. Remember when the monsters followed Jade and Tabitha to the new tunnels and had almost surrounded them? Another quake took place that stopped the monsters from reaching Jade and Tabitha. So what I am trying to say here is that one earthquake could be plot armor, but two earthquakes meant that someone was trying to protect the only people who could save everyone in the town. And I think the children would keep protecting Jade, Tabitha, and the rest of the residents, one way or the other. MIY (aka Sophia) intentionally removed the talismans so that his team (the monsters) could accelerate the process and slaughter the residents the next night. The urgency here was that MIY didn’t want the residents to figure out a way to break the cycle using those bones, because if they did, he would lose the game. I am not sure how many people are going to survive the impending massacre, because without the talismans, the residents really have no protection left against the monsters. They have Fatima on their side, but she herself alone won’t be able to save everyone, right?

Julie Is Gonna Storywalk Again

In season 4, episode 9, Sophia mentioned to Clara that the town was built upon a ritual, and for a ritual to work, “how you do something is just as important as what you do.” In simple words, Jade and Tabitha may have had the right ingredients for the ritual, but they still don’t know how to perform it, which makes me assume that either the duo is gonna remember the process from their previous cycle, or it is Julie, who’s gonna travel to previous cycles, to find out the answers. Julie’s storywalking wasn’t much explored in season 4, and I suppose the showrunners are saving it for the final season, where we will finally see Julie overcoming her fears to storywalk again and excelling at it so she can help her family and the residents go back home. And I think that during one of her storywalking adventures, Julie is going to come across a woman, looking exactly like Sophia, which will help her to connect the dots that the woman staying with them was an imposter all along. Julie’s storytelling is an interesting concept in the show, as it may help the showrunners to explore the backstories of different characters like Martin (the man in the dungeon), Eloise (Victor’s sister), and Miranda (Victor’s mother and Henry’s wife). We have only heard or seen brief glimpses of these characters, and I think many of us want to learn more about them. Furthermore, Julie’s encounter with MIY in season 3 laid out that there was some history between them, and I think through her storywalking, Julie will learn more about MIY, the ritual, and the structure of the town, a knowledge that will give the residents an upper hand in the game.

The Residents Will Turn Against Each Other

The way Patty freaked out when the sky went dark and tried to shoot herself using Boyd’s gun established how the residents were slowly losing their minds and were on the verge of a mental breakdown. Season 4 began with Boyd counting bullets in his office, making sure there were enough bullets for each resident, as he believed that in the end, the residents would want to shoot themselves to end the horrors. And I think he wasn’t wrong because the way things are turning out, the residents are slowly making peace with the fact that death’s better than the pain and suffering they go through each day. However, if the residents didn’t end up hurting themselves, mostly because Boyd won’t let them shoot themselves, the residents will try to pin the blame on someone (most likely Jade) for bringing doom upon their heads. It’s what Jade’s younger self had told Jade on the mushroom trip that what he was going to do next would turn the entire town against him. Now his prophecy became clearer as it was Jade’s idea to bring down the Bottle Tree, and Patty already said it to Boyd’s face, that by knocking down the tree, they’d made things worse. So once chaos closes in, everyone in town will start sharing Patty’s paranoia, and blame Jade for the death and destruction, and therefore would try to kill him. The only question is: will he or someone be able to protect him from the wrath of the residents, or Jade will suffer the same fate as his former selves in the previous cycles? Also, I don’t think any new residents will be arriving in town in the next season, as MIY has already said that it was the final phase of the current cycle, and it doesn’t make sense to bring in any new faces to town, which will complicate the dynamics between the current residents. 

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